Documents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement contain new details in the accidental shooting death of Mary Knowlton at the Punta Gorda Citizen’s Academy in August 2016.

FDLE surmised that Knowlton died because officers could not differentiate between blank and lethal bullets.

According to the documents, Officer Lee Coel loaded his personal .38 caliber Smith and Wesson with bullets from his car. Coel kept different boxes of ammunition in his car including a couple of boxes lethal Blazer ammunition and three boxes of Winchester blank bullets.

Coel was given those bullets before by Lieutenant Katie Heck. Heck told investigators she thought she had given Coel the Blazer bullets and thought they were blank. Upon investigation, FDLE found out that Blazer does not manufacture blanks.

Heck also told investigators that she got the ammunition from her husband, John Heck, who had the ammunition at their home. John works for the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators said they found Heck’s fingerprints on one of the Blazer boxes inside Coel’s patrol car.

Interview with fellow Charlotte County deputy

This isn't the first time Coel has pointed his gun at other people during training exercises.

Deputy Justin Gilmer with the sheriff's office said in a joint training exercise that he pursued Coel with his K-9 deputy. He said that Coel then ran and fired his gun – loaded with blanks – at Gilmer.

Sheriff's office protocol requires an officer to point his gun toward the ground.

Gilmer also said that in another incident, Coel test fired his gun by pointing in at the ground and shooting. Gilmer said that grass flew up, but that could've been caused by the concussion and not necessarily live ammunition being used.

Citizen’s Academy training exercise

During the citizen’s academy, there were four groups for role-playing scenarios. Knowlton was part of the first group. She was set to play the police officer while Coel played the suspicious person.

Coel put his gun on the front bumper of a police car while Knowlton had a loaded simulation training gun. She was supposed to confront Coel.

During the role play, Coel walked to the front bumper to retrieve his gun and fired four shots at Knowlton.

According to FDLE, the Punta Gorda Police Department did not have a set policy on where officers were to aim a gun when conducting a simulation. But during interviews, others in the department said they would aim at someone’s feet.

Knowlton was hit by two bullets - one in the abdomen and the other ricocheted off the car’s hood and hit her in the elbow.

Chief Tom Lewis, Coel and other officers rushed to help Knowlton and paramedics arrived about 10 minutes after the shooting. Knowlton died at the hospital 46 minutes after the role-playing scenario began.

The autopsy revealed Knowlton’s cause of death as a gunshot wound to her torso.

FDLE said they found no evidence that Coel intended to use lethal ammunition while participating in the exercise with Knowlton. Additionally, the inability of Coel and others to tell the difference between blank cartridges and lethal resulted in Knowlton’s death.

Coel was fired by the Punta Gorda Police Department last week after the State Attorney’s Office brought charges of manslaughter. Chief Lewis was placed on administrative leave and was also charged with negligence.